World Environment Day: 5 Organic Cafes In Mumbai That Are Doing Their Bit

It's World Environment Day and everybody is talking organic food and gluten-free and vegan eating out options in Mumbai. The farm-to-fork trend has taken over city restaurants in a huge way, and more and more restaurateurs are doing everything to give Indian farmers their due.

Kitchen Garden by Suzette: Kitchen Garden is known for its organic food from sandwiches to salads launched by the folks behind Suzette. This healthy cafe uses ingredients like spirulina, amla, kale and quinoa among others. Their menu also offers a range of cold pressed juices, healthy smoothies, fresh salads and also interesting desserts. KG sources their produce from nearby farms such as Offerings Farm, they are known for growing and promoting clean, healthy and nutritious organic produce of greens, vegetables, fruits, exotics and herbs. Get your energy fix by visiting this healthy and organic cafe.

Where: Kitchen Garden, Gasper Enclave, St. John Street, Pali Naka, near Suzette, opposite Gold’s Gym, Bandra.

212 All Good: 212 All Good focuses on fresh ingredients, which are locally sourced from Terra Farms, Earth Loaf, Samskara Organic, Conscious Foods, The Spotted Cow Formagerie and Vrindavan Farms. They use ingredients like buck wheat, black rice, goji berries, yam, nettle, amaranth and beet brine to create their menu. What makes them different from other cafes is their offering of raw tomatoes with olive oil and sea salt instead of bread basket! Interesting right? You can find more interesting things on their menu like Glow and Shine (a juice with warermelon, apricot, tomato and lime), PH Balance ( another juice with tomato, basil, spinach, celery, Himalayan salt and lime). There are dairy-free smoothies, botanical sodas like Coffee Cola (Espresso, balsamic and house cola) and a variety of granola and brekkie bowls.

Where: 212 All Good, Ground Floor, Grand Galleria, below Croma, High Street Phoenix, Lower Parel.

Birdsong Cafe: Birdsong Café is an organic deli started by Jennifer Mallick and Ashish Madan who got Kavita Mukhi on board, the founder of Farmers Market for the consultancy of this café. Their menu offers a great deal of organic food and drinks from banana fritters, granola bowl with freshly cut seasonal fruits, couscous veggie upma and cracker pizza (vegan cheese and gluten free also available). To end your meal with something sweet, their signature chia pudding (fresh coconut milk, chia seeds with seasonal fruits) is a must try. But if you want to go for something regular, you can also have the vegan chocolate cake here.

Where: Shop 1-5, Waroda Road, Behind American Express Bakery, Near Jude Bakery, Hill Road, Bandra.

The Village Shop: The Village Shop, an all day café is another offering from Jennifer Mallick, co-owner of Birdsong Café that she runs along with husband Javed. They offer a variety of salads, milkshakes, mains and sandwiches like the Raw Cacao and Sesame Milkshake (all raw, vegan, organic and dairy free), Haldi Panna (turmeric, ginger and coriander) salads like Black Beauty (steamed black rice, roasted colored peppers in lemon honey dressing) and Mr.Millet (Roasted quinoa, prosso millet, cranberry and herbed lemon vinaigrette). They also offer power breakfast in veg, vegan and non-veg categories. They soon plan to open a full-time store that will offer ingredients including organic meat and cage-free eggs.

Where: The Village Shop, Serpis Villa, near St. Andrew’s Church, off Hill Road, Chimbai, Bandra

The Yoga House: A unique all day café in Bandra that not only serves healthy yet organic food, but also holds yoga classes through the day. The menu here offers a variety of dishes like quinoa poha for breakfast, I am fighting (fig salad with dried figs, purple cabbage, alfa alfa, parsley, coriander, mint and mixed greens served with sesame olive oil and lemon dressing) and I Am Dieting (raw vegetable basket, Mediterranean dipping sauces, home made pesto, yogurt with fresh herbs, Dijon mustard, tomato chutney and hummus). A range of fresh raw juices and smoothies on the menu will leave you surprised. The Ten Grains Bread & Paneer Bhurji, Carrot Cake and Signature Hash Browns are some of the highly recommended dishes.

Where: Nargis Villa (Water Bungalow), Sherley Rajan Road, Opposite ICICI Bank, Carter Road, Bandra West